Richard Connell

Richard Connell was born in 1893 to parents Richard and Mary Connell. His father, a successful man in many fields, was an editor, reporter, political advisor to Franklin D. Roosevelt, and congressman. Following in his father’s footsteps, Connell took up writing fairly young, covering baseball games for his father’s former employer, The Poughkeepsie Press, by the age of 10. Enrolling at Harvard University in 1912, he continued writing and eventually became editorial chairman of The Crimson and president of the Harvard Lampoon. During WWI, Connell enlisted and served in the U.S. Army. He returned home after the war to an advertising career and married a colleague, Louise Fox, in 1919. Connell and his wife traveled abroad for a few years before returning stateside, and he left advertising for a freelance writing career. He wrote numerous novels and award-winning short stories, including “The Most Dangerous Game,” his best-known work and winner of the O. Henry Memorial Award. Encouraged by his modest writing success, Connell moved to Hollywood to pursue screenwriting, and two of his screenplays, Meet John Doe and Two Girls and a Sailor, received Academy Award nominations. In 1949, he died of a heart attack in Beverly Hills at the age of 56. “The Most Dangerous Game” remains one of the most regularly anthologized short stories.